Manhunt
by PsychoHeidi
Summary: Mukuro's crew investigates the disappearance of Enki's missing interpreter.
1. Before

MANHUNT

**_Before_**

Warm light shone down through the leaves of Hiei's favorite tree. As the fabric of his pants absorbed the heat, he stretched atop a branch, his back against the trunk, and sighed in contentment. It was true – Makai skies were far from bright and clear, but today was one of the rare days in which sunlight managed to wrestle its way through the haze in a way that created the perfect environment for napping.

Reaching up, Hiei plucked a plump purple fruit from a flowering cluster hanging above him and sank his teeth into its velveteen flesh. Juice trickled over his tongue, and his taste buds tingled from the sudden shock of flavor.

Perhaps this afternoon would be merciful enough to let him forget everything, just for a few hours…

"Mister Hiei!"

Then he remembered that forgetting would be impossible. The world was shitty, and it was full of shitty people, and none of them understood how to shut their faces. Indeed, nearly every second someone was speaking to him was a constant reminder of how much he didn't actually care about anything. In fact, he cared so little about what the officer beneath him had to say that he closed his eyes, sat perfectly still, and pretended he to be dead.

He knew he couldn't wish himself away – it was something he had tried more than once in his weaker moments in life, but to no avail – but maybe this time, his efforts would at least fool the imbecile down on the ground long enough to earn Hiei some peace.

"Mister Hiei! Excuse me, but Lord Mukuro has requested your presence in her room. Mister Hiei?"

"Shut up."

"But—"

"Go away."

"But Mukuro—"

"Tell Mukuro that if she wants to have a word with me, she should grow a pair and tell me in person."

Hiei was not in the mindset to care about the response he got, but he did hear a distinct sigh and departing footsteps. He felt fairly certain his message wouldn't reach Mukuro verbatim, if at all, but as long as nobody was talking at him, he supposed it didn't matter.

Hiei fell into a light sleep and was awakened some time later by a crackle of leaves below him. Without a glance, he tossed the fruit core in his hand in the direction of the sound, assuming the noise had been made by the same rookie officer come back to tell him what he should do with his afternoon.

Not a second later, Hiei startled when the same fruit hit him in the side of the head about ten times harder than he had thrown it.

"You should pay attention to where you toss your garbage."

"She appears," drawled Hiei, peering only briefly over the branch to spy the fiery-haired woman below. "Find better drones to do your bidding and maybe I wouldn't have to resort to violence."

"My officers are not the problem," Mukuro replied shortly. Her next step in logic was bitten off before it could vocalize, perhaps a genuine attempt at tact.

Hiei didn't even care enough to shrug.

"Enki has lost his translator."

"Maybe he ate it."

A second tactful silence followed before she continued, and Hiei could clearly envision her gritting her teeth at him in suppressed rage. "The translator disappeared at night from the campsite during Enki's return from a diplomatic mission south of Gandara. They searched for a day and never found him. He is of apparent value to Enki, and we have been assigned to retrieve him."

"I don't give a shit about a translator."

"Then suffer in silence," she snapped. "I do it on your behalf all too often."

"That's your own fault."

Mukuro had already turned to go, but she stopped mid-stride, her back facing him.

"You're an indecisive asshole who doesn't know what the fuck she wants," Hiei added, and felt his gut clench even as he said it – an automatic response he had unfortunately developed during his time with her. It usually occurred when he said something incredibly stupid that he didn't necessarily mean and would probably come to regret. It was also a feeling he would now choose to ignore. "That's why you're always so damn unhappy."

Mukuro jumped and landed swiftly in front of him on the branch, choking him by his own shirt as she jerked his face close to hers.

"I know that I want you to shut up," she whispered vehemently, her live eye glistening with moisture despite her stony façade. "Shut up and do as I tell you, and be fucking quiet."

"That's redundant, bitch."

"You don't hear me otherwise," Mukuro said. "Because if you did, you would understand that I can't handle being punished for this. I can barely deal with you anymore as it is."

Hiei huffed as she threw him back against the tree trunk.

"Wait at the back entrance of the fortress tomorrow at sunrise," she said coldly, her feet hitting the ground with a light _thud_. "And stop being an insufferable bastard around my crew. Despite what you may think, my loyalty for you is finite."

Hiei straightened his shirt, glaring at her retreating backside.

Even though the sun still felt warm on his skin, he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep. As with every other good thing she touched in his life, this afternoon would be screwed up, too. All he wanted to do was bury his fist into her face, even though he knew there was no real reason. There was no use. It wouldn't change the past, and it wouldn't bring back the lost.

He wasn't even sure he wanted it to, no matter how much it hurt.

* * *

**Author's Note:** MANY thanks to the wonderful Dementian, who is kindly beta-reading this story. Since this is my first horror story venture, she will be helping to ensure that this fic is as disturbing as possible for your lovely eyeballs.

Reviews are always welcome!


	2. Into the Woods

PREVIOUSLY on _Heidi Struggles to Write a Horror Story_… Mukuro is given urgent orders by Enki to find a missing diplomat and enlists Hiei's help to complete the task, despite an obvious and violent tension between them.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Into the Woods**

The map Enki had provided, disclosing the approximate location of the translator's disappearance, was cracked and faded. The most legible entity on the page was a large red X made by the demon world leader himself not two days before.

Because Mukuro had automatically placed herself in front of their small group as the leader, and because Hiei had little patience for such matters, Kirin had inherited control of the map and continued to puzzle over it as they trudged through the humid marshes of south Makai.

Hiei tended toward indifference regardless of his location. However, he knew little about the marshes and cared for them even less. It was the only place where he felt less capable of moving than usual, and the moist air was so thick that breathing quickly became a chore.

"Remind me again why we are trudging through this shit hole."

Mukuro, not caring to dignify his comment with a response, continued forward, each step squelching in the loose, wet muck that was the ground. Somewhere – everywhere – the buzzing of insects created a steady hum.

Kirin cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"It's faster this way," he said, to no one in particular. "Traveling straight through the marshes rather than going around them will save us at least an hour."

Hiei scoffed. "If our goal is to save time, why are we continually going slower?"

The _oof_ and a subsequent _SPLAT_ from behind them, as one of the two officers accompanying them tripped and fell in the mud, served as an adequate answer to Hiei's question, but it did not help him to feel any happier about the situation as he saw Kirin stop and turn to aid the fallen officer.

He was still not sure why Mukuro had deemed it necessary to bring two miserable weaklings along for a search and rescue mission. They had gone on infinitely more arduous and physically demanding missions with just the two of them and managed to pull through with usually only minor complications, if any. Moreover, of the five times in the last hour that Hiei had demanded she explain the reason behind her actions, she had only replied once, claiming some ridiculous excuse like, "More eyes makes for quicker work," as the basis for her choice.

In truth, his confusion about Mukuro's intentions had planted the seed of paranoia in Hiei. Along with the emotionless quips regarding her dissolving loyalty and patience, which she made with increasing frequency at his expense as of late, her failure to acknowledge their potency as a team of two concerned him. It was as though she were attempting to replace him.

She had even neglected to employ the use of his Jagan eye to determine the location of the missing translator. Hiei knew that with his third eye, there was no need whatsoever for extra help on this venture.

By this time, their previously compact group had become dispersed as Kirin straggled behind with the two officers. With her expectation of a quick solution to the problem dashed, Mukuro now stopped and turned to wait for the others. Eventually, the three caught up, one wiry officer limping along, his weight balanced between the two larger demons as he used their shoulders for support.

"Tanglethorn caught him," Kirin reported to Mukuro. "He struggled and his ankle is badly twisted now. I doubt he'll be fit to stay upright for very long."

"I didn't know what it was," said the officer, abashed even with his brow furrowed in pain. Hiei snorted.

"Should I take him back to the fortress?" the other officer asked.

Mukuro shook her head. "We've been walking for nearly three hours through this marsh."

"It would do more harm to your leg to go back now than to just continue on," agreed Kirin. "According to the map, we're not more than 45 minutes away from where Enki's diplomat was lost."

"I can make it," said the wounded officer earnestly. "I just need to take it slow."

It took all of Hiei's self-control not to roll his eyes, and, in the end, not even all his self-control was enough.

"We'll set up camp when it gets dark. I packed some cloth with the food," Kirin continued, gesturing at the rucksack slung over his shoulder. "I'll find a sturdy stick and we'll make a stint. It won't be much, but it should hold you by until we make it back to the fortress."

Hiei, having quickly lost interest in the conversation at hand, was already moving on, quickening his pace until he caught Mukuro's stride.

"Are you hearing this?" he asked her pointedly. "Is none of this bothering you?"

Since yesterday's incident, Mukuro had been making a point to not respond to Hiei. In fact, it was almost as though she had not even heard him. She didn't even shrug.

"You know, I'm seriously beginning to question your capacity to handle responsibility."

"Only just now?" she asked. "I was under the impression you had been for quite some time."

Her tone, for whatever reason, flustered Hiei, so much so that he failed to respond before she had started speaking again.

"Well, if it bothers you so much, why don't you stop following me?"

"No," snapped Hiei, and, then: "Is that what you want?"

"What do _you_ think?"

She phrased the question as though it should have an obvious answer, although the answer was far from obvious to him. To make matters more difficult, he was not really thinking at all. The only answer he could come up with was a feeling, which, like most of his present feelings, he didn't like.

In the end, he merely grunted and darted up into the branches. The more he pushed himself, the less he would feel. The more his muscles burned, the less everything else would hurt. So he sprinted ahead as fast as he could, and he didn't look back.

It had angered him that Mukuro had not asked him to use his Jagan. But in truth, when he had tried using it several miles back, the area that housed their destination was murky in the depths of his sight. Perhaps it was the humidity, he reasoned, although such trivialities as temperature and weather had never hindered his performance before.

In a small way, this might have been proof that he was at a fault, too. This could have been his punishment. After all the harm he had done, the universe was stealing away what might have actually made him happy. Yet he would never know.

He would not tell Mukuro about the Jagan.

Predictably, Hiei arrived at their destination half an hour before the other four. It was time, he soon discovered, that would have been wasted no matter what, for there was nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and nowhere to nap. Outside of the marsh where he now found himself standing alone, the sky was thick and dark and the wind whistled, beckoning the beginning of a new night. The field grasses rustled.

Hiei could already tell that this was a dead end, figuratively and perhaps literally as well. Either the interpreter's corpse was decomposing in the waist-high grass somewhere nearby, or, more likely, he was not here. It would, after all, be illogical to assume that anyone would stay in an area with no shelter or resources... even one of Enki's idiots.

When Mukuro and the others caught up to them, the same conclusion was reached. It was dark by now, the heavy clouds in the sky blocking out any semblance of starlight.

"We shouldn't spend the night here," Kirin said. "It's too open. We're liable to be ambushed."

"No shit," replied Hiei. The cover of dark hid the glare he inevitably received in return.

"There."

Four heads turned to follow the faint outline of Mukuro's arm, directing their gazes toward the looming mass of darkness silhouetted against the already inky night sky. "A forest," she clarified.

"Perfect," Hiei said, and started to walk.

Kirin, however, remained rooted to the spot. "Forest?" he echoed. He sustained a small ball of energy on his index finger of one hand as he squinted at the map in the other. "That can't be a forest."

"Well, unless you misplaced your asshole, there's little else we can claim it to be."

"Hiei!" Mukuro snapped.

He stopped, turning abruptly on the spot. "_What?_"

"That map is probably old," piped one of the officers. "Maybe the forest was just never recorded onto it."

Kirin made a sound of uncertainty. "That doesn't make any sense. A forest that large takes centuries to grow, and—"

"Kirin," Mukuro interrupted steadily.

"Sorry, My Lord."

"You shouldn't apologize. But we don't have any other choice – not tonight, at least. Not with his leg as it is," she said, referring to the wounded officer. "We know where we are. It will be easy enough to resume our search of this field by daylight tomorrow."

"Of course," Kirin conceded.

They continued into the forest in silence, built a small fire in a clearing half a mile in, and laid out soft blankets on which to sleep. Hiei had become so accustomed to resting beside Mukuro on their journeys that he found himself disillusioned as he watched her build a resting spot across the campfire from him. Sullen, he briskly announced the he would go find food, expecting the hunt to be a small distraction from how _she_ made him feel, but it turned out to be far from therapeutic, especially when he was forced to return to camp half an hour later empty-handed because he had failed to find a single small rabbit or bird anywhere near their campsite.

Kirin finished building a temporary stint on the leg of the officer. He offered dry meat from his bag to anyone who was hungry enough for it, though the group unanimously agreed to go to sleep hungry and save the jerky for the trek back home through the marsh. The creatures there carried stringy meat with deplorable taste on their bones.

With their stomachs growling and their ears alert to danger, they fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

Reddish light shone down from above, partially blocked by tree cover. The wounded officer was still asleep, but the other was awake, and he had busied himself with gathering berries from a nearby bush. Kirin was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's the oaf?"

"I don't know," replied Mukuro as she folded her blanket and tucked it into the rucksack. "He was gone when I woke up. He probably decided to get an early start and set out for the field."

It was obvious that Mukuro had not slept through the night by the darkness around her eye and the way that she neglected to jump at the condescending way he addressed Kirin. He might have felt for her, but it wasn't enough.

Mukuro conferred with the two officers about who was to stay at camp and who was to go. The officer's leg was still too tender to walk on. Since there was no way that he could aid in the search, he agreed to stay at camp and rest in hopes that by the time they left – hopefully the next morning – he would be able to walk. The other officer agreed to stay at camp with him for the time being.

"Remind me again how they're helping this mission at all," muttered Hiei as he and Mukuro started off toward the fields.

They walked in silence, Mukuro always several steps ahead. It was almost like the way it had been, except that the silence was not amiable. It was pregnant with disappointment and longing.

So lost in thought was Hiei that he almost bumped into Mukuro when she suddenly stopped and looked upwards, shielding her eyes with the back of her hand.

"This isn't right," she said.

Hiei raised a brow, but any illusions about what she meant dissipated as he brought his thoughts back to reality. "How long have we been walking?" he asked, his voice low. He knew without question that they had been at it more than five minutes, which was how long the trek had taken the previous night. And that was with a cripple.

"Look."

Look Hiei did. Up he looked, and the farther he saw, the thicker the cover became.

This was the wrong direction.

It was a conclusion that made him immediately dubious.

"How is that possible?" he muttered.

But Mukuro hadn't the opportunity to respond, for before she could so much as part her lips, the horrific shriek of a man in pain filled the air, screeching like metal on metal in a blacksmith's workshop. It was such a cutting noise that Hiei nearly winced.

"The campsite," Mukuro said, breaking into a sprint back the way they had come, and Hiei followed without another thought.

They ran through the forest, through the leaves and brush, their footsteps uncomfortably loud for demons as practiced at moving quickly and quietly as they were. The wind was no help. It had started up again and it was determined to work against them, seemingly attempting to push them away from their goal.

They reached the camp out of breath, only to find it empty. The two officers were gone, and the blanket the injured one had been sitting on was askew. Hiei could not recall whether the stains of blood had been there earlier in the morning. Iron lingered in the air.

"There was a struggle here." Mukuro knelt where the dried forest floor had been upturned, perhaps by the heel of a boot in the midst of a scuffle.

_Click._

"Did you hear that?" Hiei asked.

It was far off, but he was sure he had heard—

_Click._

Yes, there it was again. Almost a tapping, or the sound of a child clicking his tongue.

"I heard it."

Holding their breath, for it was so faint a noise they were liable to miss it, Hiei and Mukuro waited, but the noise did not sound again.

The two exchanged a glance. Her eyes flickered to the left. "Hiei—"

_Click._

Turning his head infinitesimally, Hiei strained his eyes to the very periphery of his vision until he could see just over his shoulder.

Someone was standing behind him.

Hiei's reflexes snapped into action. Before he could register a coherent thought, his sword had been removed from the sheath, its edge a thread's width from slicing into the neck of whatever had caught him unawares.

"No, please!" the figure teetered precariously on his feet, then fell backwards, his backside thumping as it impacted the ground. "Shit!"

Whatever feeling had stirred Hiei's defenses was gone now as he realized his attacker was no attacker at all, but the officer with the wounded leg. The demon grasped at his neck, as if checking for injury.

"Do that again and maybe I will kill you," warned Hiei with a glare. He had been referring to the officer's mistake of sneaking up behind him, but the demon stopped touching his neck and narrowed his eyes.

"I wasn't doing _anything_!"

It was the first time Hiei had ever seen one of Mukuro's low-ranking officers talk back or employ language even nearing the territory of what some might consider "foul." Obviously the stress of the situation was getting to him. Hiei assumed that defenselessness and total incompetence would have the same effect on anyone, but he had never been in that position, so he couldn't be sure.

"I doubt that," Hiei replied. "Since you're as useful as a piece of crap right now, maybe you should watch yourself more carefully next time."

"Why did you leave the campsite?" asked Mukuro.

"I was taking a piss!" The tone of his voice suggested he hadn't been able to finish.

"Where are the other two?"

"I don't know!"

Mukuro was experienced in dealing with hysterics – it was the tumor of misfortunate on the wake of her success as a former demon king. Typically, though, such emotional reactions did not occur in those who had the privilege of considering her an ally. And certainly not as a result of such simple questions.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" demanded Hiei. Reaching down, he grasped an armor-plated shoulder and pulled hard, intending to bring the officer to his feet. But as soon as the demon's knees lifted from the ground, there was an audibly moist crunch, and he collapsed again, blood pooling on the grass, soaking through to the soil.

"His leg." Mukuro, appearing almost concerned, knelt in front of the demon, readying herself to examine his injury, but the officer would not allow it. Pained, he lashed out, his fist planting itself in Mukuro's gut.

It shouldn't have hurt her. The officer, although frantic, was hardly a threat. Yet, to Hiei's dismay, Mukuro lost her balance, holding her stomach protectively as she doubled over in pain.

"Mukuro," he urged her, "let me see."

She lifted her arms from her mid section, and Hiei saw a swelling of her figure there that he had not noticed before. The color red blossomed like a terrible flower from the seam of her pants.

Groaning, she raised her face to look at him, her live eye as devoid of caring as her dead one. "It's for the better, isn't it, though?" she said.

* * *

Hiei awoke to voices, a headache, and a feeling of nakedness despite his cloak and scarf.

For a split second, as he stared bleary-eyed at the trees, his mind produced strange patterns of figures and eyes in the branches, but by the time he blinked, they were just negative spaces in the leaves and the hazy forest ceiling miles above.

When he jumped down from the branch on which he had spent the night, he nearly expected the entire campsite to be deserted and a bloody Mukuro lying unconscious in the middle of it. But the clearing was just as he had left it when he closed his eyes to rest the night before, and as Hiei watched the others pack blankets and belongings in Kirin's rucksack in preparation for the journey to the fields, the images his dreaming mind had conjured began to distort in his waking consciousness.

"Don't worry," the uninjured officer assured his seated companion. "I can stay here with you."

"Is that wise?" Kirin asked.

Mukuro, chin lifted upwards to the treetops, exhaled a breath of heavy morning air in apparent contemplation. Her torso, concealed by a loosely fitting shirt, transfixed Hiei, and he stared at it, expecting a geyser of blood to erupt from that spot.

She looked down, and the slimming of her eye as she caught his gaze told him that she suspected he was imagining something very different than he actually was.

When she spoke, it was to Kirin and the officers: "He will be of more use to us in the search for the politician."

The officer shook his head apologetically, crouching beside his companion. "I don't mean to defy your orders, my Lord, but I don't know if I agree. What if he's attacked while we're away?"

"I'm fine, really," the other officer insisted.

"That's a lie!"

Hiei couldn't care less about either of the officers, but it was unreasonably hard for him at the moment to look at their stupid armored bodies without imagining hands with the same gloves as they were wearing, buried painfully into Mukuro's stomach.

He didn't feel particularly against the idea of one of them staying behind.

"Are you really so concerned about his safety or do you just want to defile him in peace?" he asked. "You sound more like an insecure female than a highly trained warrior – if that's even what you are."

The other demon scowled and spluttered, at a loss for words.

"I'm just a little weak," said the wounded officer. "I couldn't walk for hours, but I could run for a short time, and I can still fight."

Hiei grumbled, cursing his unstable psyche for causing him more troubles than Mukuro did on her worst days.

"It won't be an issue," decided Mukuro as he stalked past her. "One doesn't need keen perception to realize that there's nothing of consequence in this forest. An afternoon here will hardly result in death."

Wind rushed through the trees, blowing her hair all about. She spat as several strands landed in her mouth.

Kirin lifted his rucksack from his shoulder and, having already removed the map, passed it to the officer. "The jerky is yours. We will catch food for ourselves."

"Thanks. You'd better not abandon me out here," he joked weakly.

"We will return by nightfall," Mukuro assured him. "Hopefully sooner."

"Hopefully with the object of our search in tow," Kirin added. "Are we ready?"

The other officer, who had been leaning sullenly against a nearby tree, pushed himself upright, and, with a mournful glance back at his wounded comrade, trailed Kirin and Mukuro as they departed, joining Hiei in the brush.

* * *

Traveling through the forest with Kirin and the officer was far less enjoyable than having done it alone with Mukuro.

Not that Hiei had ever traveled this route at all.

Crickets and cicadas chirped in the bushes, a noise that Hiei might have, on any other day in any other forest, found soothing. But this was neither the place nor time. When he thought past the dull throbbing in his skull or the irritable looks Mukuro passed him, Hiei could not believe how much time they had spent on such a trivial venture already.

It was a waste of his effort, considering the idiot they were looking for was probably already dead.

They traveled in silence for some time, Hiei now having fallen several paces behind the others. He stopped when Mukuro said, "This isn't right," and found her standing in a small patch of faintly filtered light, peering up at the treetops. "Look."

Hiei felt he already had a solid grasp of what he would see when he did, though he followed her gaze anyway, feeling nothing if not ironically disappointed at the foliage miles above, sickly green like murky waves turning in an uneasy sea.

"But that's impossible," remarked Kirin in awe.

And a terrible shriek sliced the air.


End file.
